Dr. Locke on Bridging Chemotherapy in Patients With Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma

Frederick Locke, MD, a medical oncologist in the Department of Blood and Marrow Transplant, Moffitt Cancer Center, and an assistant professor of oncology at the University of South Florida, discusses the use of bridging chemotherapy in patients receiving chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy.

One of the key things physicians have learned is that it is OK to give bridging chemotherapy, says Locke. In the ZUMA-1 trial, it took an average of 17 days for physicians to collect cells for the manufacturer of axicabtagene ciloleucel (axi-cel; Yescarta) and wait for them to be returned. In both the JULIET trial and the ongoing TRANSCEND trial, bridging chemotherapy was allowed.

Now that physicians have an FDA approval for axi-cel and tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah), they are able to give bridging chemotherapy once the cells are collected, explains Locke. Bridging chemotherapy may decrease disease burden and may be responsible for some of the differences in toxicities that are evident across the trials for these products, states Locke.